Jabil's behind the scenes role in HP's 3D printing drive

HP @ formnext credit HP twitter

HP's formnext powered by TCT plays host to dozens of visitors.

At a tour of the Blue Sky Innovation Center, San Jose, CA, in August 2017, Jabil was introduced as the ‘only multi-billion dollar company you may never have heard of.’ The reason for that is the manufacturing service company does most of its work in the background, assisting other ambitious companies to become household names by delivering top-of-the-range products.

In August, Jabil invited reporters from all around the world to its two-year-old facility as HP prepared to announce its 3D printing partnership with Deloitte. For nearly 25 years, Jabil has had a fruitful manufacturing alliance of its own with HP, and when the information technology giant first announced its movement into additive manufacturing in 2014, Jabil execs were straight on the phone to HP for a piece of the action. Notably, the first set of Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) printers HP shipped were to Jabil. The company now has six and it forms the backbone of the company’s AM operations, which also include machines from Ultimaker, Stratasys and Formlabs.

Three years on from that phone call, HP has established itself in the 3D printing industry, establishing a wealth of materials partners, R&D facilities and earlier this month launching the next-generation of its Multi Jet Fusion platform. At formnext powered by TCT 2017, Jabil’s Vice President of Digital Manufacturing, John Dulchinos and HP’s Global Head of Market Development, 3D Printing, Scott Schiller opened up about the company’s partnership in the 3D printing space.

“One of the early discussions we had with HP was ‘well there’s a number of the parts on the MJF, as well as many parts on the product line, that from a volume standpoint, and a geometry standpoint, and a materials standpoint, it would really be advantageous to do them with 3D printing,'” Dulchinos told TCT. “That was the beginning of it.”

‘It’ being Jabil’s work over the last few years to manufacture 50 interior parts for the MJF system with the same MJF model. In August, HP CEO, Dion Weisler joked he had initial worries of the value capture strategy of the MJF being completely thrown out because the printers had self-replicating capabilities. Schiller laughs when the story is told back to him on HP’s booth at formnext, having heard the same quip back in 2014 at the launch event. He also moves to clarify that the printing of the parts isn't novelty or gimmicky, but instead something that saves both time and money.

“[Printing the HP MJF parts] is absolutely imperative,” he said. “Anything we do has to be economically justified, without any debate or discussion, and nothing just for marketing spin.”

3D printing the 3D printer parts expedited the production ramp of the MJF system, while precision, property and strength requirements were still able to be met. Breakeven points versus injection moulding climbed to 40,000 and Jabil engineers were able to go through 19 design iterations of a certain part in the time it would take to go through one with traditional methods. They also noticed there were significant cost reductions being made – a $20 printer part made with traditional techniques could be printed for less than $6, a big saving when manufacturing 50 parts for 50 printers in a short space of time like Jabil do.

HP MJF 4210 @ formnext 17

The Multi Jet Fusion 4210 at formnext powered by TCT.

In terms of design, Jabil was able to collapse several parts down into a single component, or otherwise two that could be more easily assembled together. On the HP stand at formnext, many of these parts were on show, including one featuring brackets, clips and threaded holes, which would have had to been made in six different components with traditional methods according to Dulchinos.

It’s example of the, until now, unsung work Jabil has been doing behind the scenes as HP sets about its mission to disrupt the manufacturing market with the MJF. Shortly before formnext, HP unveiled the 4210 next-generation MJF system, offering a 110k breakeven point vs injection moulding. It not only represents a next step for HP’s 3D printing activities, but also some more legwork to keep Jabil busy.

“Around half of the custom plastic parts of the 4200 are additively printed and now we’re working on the next generation product that was announced recently, and we haven’t finished the count there,” Schiller added. “One of the really interesting things is, as our engineers work together with our partners, we started bouncing ideas off each other. Whereas we thought we would have 100 parts [3D printed], now that number starts to really climb [and] we haven’t reached the upper bound yet.”

The new platform, along with the materials that were announced with it, of course, open up more opportunities for the 3D printing market. As one of the pioneers of the Multi Jet Fusion process, HP deems Jabil’s engineers among the safest pairs of hands to drive forward the production of the company’s 3D printers. The partners, both originating from the Silicon Valley region, share a respect, a confidence and a vision, which has contributed to the success of their partnership during the last quarter of a century. When HP required a service manufacturer to help produce the MJF systems, there was likely only one port of call anyway, even if Jabil picked up the phone first.

“Jabil was advanced in terms of their engagement and understanding of state of the art and in general with additive, especially with Multi Jet Fusion,” outlines Schiller. “But it was also an interesting experiment to say let’s take a real contract manufacturer and give our supply chain, characterise where the opportunities are and what kind of feedback you get. Jabil is just a phenomenal contract manufacturing partner, so you get the quality control and the things you would typically associate with standard procurement but in the world of additive that’s not a uniform guarantee.”

As well as the 3D printed parts, Jabil has been experimenting with pilot-level applications on the MJF systems – off-road vehicle components and shoe insoles were mentioned at the Blue Sky Center back in August. The main responsibility, though, has been in the manufacture of MJF custom plastic parts and as the partnership moves forward, the pair are set to expand their reach and achieve greater flexibility as they build and deliver MJF to the world.

“The next step is to now set up production in Singapore, that’s where the printers would be [sited], so we want to locate production near the customer,” said Dulchinos. “What’s really great about that is [we] will then have these two manufacturing giants that are basically able to physically share production – we can produce in either site. [If] we have a capacity need to shift production, [we can] push more into San Jose or push more into Singapore. It’ll allow us to start thinking about distributed manufacturing, and local-for-local manufacturing.”